Lowering lights: Report

This is a discussion on Lowering lights: Report within the Beginner Planted Aquarium forums, part of the Beginner Freshwater Aquarium category; -->
Oh Lisa I can't wait to see the first pictures there!!!!...

You absolutely got me hooked. Gotta figure out where I want it since it grows quite think, but I know I'm going to like it. I also ordered only 1 Ludwigia Repens since you said yours was growing so fast. Can those just be cut and replanted? Will they reroot themselves?

You'll see them after few weeks dev roots along the sides of the stem. I just pinch mine off at the height I want them to be and stick the pinched off piece back in the gravel. And then the "old" parts have new shoots dev and then latyer I pinch those of and replant and so on
And by now mid Feb (tank was initially planted end of Nov) I have no more room for any pinched off parts....so right now i'm debating to set up a plastic bin with heat & light raise all excess plants up to a neat size and then hand them off cause I'd not wanna throw plants away OR lol I built another tank soon......

I see no way around your issue except building another tank LOL. I'm sure I'll understand what you're saying a little better once I get it planted and it starts growing. Is it similar to the amazon sword where it grows a daughter plant and that grows some leaves with new roots?

I'm still loving it and so do my plants. I have got to say what amazes me the most is how much the growth of all Valls types i have in there are just booming. I had Vallis grow fairly fast before but not like this.
All other plants doing fine too, also the red Crypt that initially had uhm 3-4 leaves melting its producing new one's....All is good with 30w over my 55g

Now I'm gonna tackle the lights on my 45g to try find the 'perfect' light set up

Awesome! I'm glad it's working out for you. Kind of funny how LESS light is causing more growth on your Vals. Interesting concept. I LOVE the red crypt. I unpackaged mine yesterday and as soon as I saw it I was like "YES!" soo cool. Love the wavy leaves.

Thanks for the report, Angel! It gives me some hope that I can work with my setup, which doesn't even provide for 1W/gallon.

Btw, Byron - You think the Aqua-Glo makes the tank look ghoulish? I just don't see it...

I actually took the Aqua-Glo out based on your comments and sub'd in a Marineland Full Daylight I had that came w/ one of my fixtures. After a week or so, some of the plants started developing some brown spots, so I'm going to go back to the Aqua-Glo and see what happens. There was a noticable color difference, but it wasn't purple like in some of the reef tanks I've seen, and I didn't think it looked 'un-natural' (the pic is w/ the Aqua-Glo / Sun-Glo combo).

LMy I use an Aqua Glo as well with a Life Glo2 I bought the Sun GLo to go with the Aqua Glo and before using it I compared pics of mixed bulbs and didn't like how it looked. It was too yellowish. This was before I got my fixture so I went with the pics here. Valotesti